Lakes Magnet Middle School hosts first Multicultural Faire

COEUR d'ALENE - Nobody was going hungry at Saturday's Multicultural Faire at Lakes Magnet Middle School.

Attendees tried free samples or purchased food available at the different booths representing countries from around the world. They tried Pel'meni, a traditional Russian food, European confections with lots of sweet marzipan, candy, rice crackers and seaweed from Japan, and cannoli or pizzelle from Italy, among other foods.

Along with the food, representatives at the booths displayed art, clothing, and other items common to the countries. A variety of musical acts entertained while people ate and strolled from booth to booth in the gymnasium. Hundreds of people attended the event, and many of them were kids.

Krishma Kedia, an eighth-grader at Lakes, was selling clothing including langas, which are dresses worn in India. She also sold suits and saris, which women use to wrap around themselves.

"There's lots of yellows, golds, and greens," she said. She said the clothing was selling well.

Across the gym, Hermine Sittel Kubista was selling European confections and treats from her business, Hermine's Old World Confections, located at 2415 N. Government Way.

Kubista, who moved to the U.S. from KeisersLautern, Germany, makes all the treats herself. The goodies had lots of marzipan, made up mostly of sugar and almond meal, and lots of dark chocolate.

"This is a little bit of my home," she said.

Her marzipan "potatoes," which look like mini versions of the real thing grown here in Idaho, are one of her more popular items and make good souvenirs, she said.

Giuliana Palmas, who moved to the U.S. from Italy, said many of her native country's foods are known for being made from scratch with fresh, in-season ingredients and put together in creative ways.

"My mother was a great cook, and that's a lot of what inspired me," Palmas said.

She is a member of the Order Sons of Italy in America, Bonaventura Lodge, of Post Falls, and she was selling the Italian foods at the event to raise scholarship funds that could be awarded through the organization.

She also wanted to be at the event to provide the public more information about her Italian culture.

Along with the Pel'meni offered at the event's Russian table, the Matryoshka dolls there got much of the attention from attendees stopping by. Sometimes called a Russian nesting doll, the artistic toys come in a set of decreasing sizes placed one inside the other.

Marina Avdeyev, 28, of Spokane, said one thing very different between Russian and American cultures is people traveling in many rural parts of Russian don't stay at hotels.

"They just knock on the door of a home," she said. Strangers are greeted warmly, welcomed in, fed well and given a place to sleep.

Julianna Stratton, 18, of Lake City High School, was writing people's names in Japanese, and teaching about the country's three different writing styles - Hiragana, Katakana, and Kangi - and the country's art.

She said she was drawn to study Japanese in high school because the culture and language are so much different than the European languages and cultures more familiar to people in the U.S.

"In the few seconds that we might have them here (at the booth), we try and show them a little bit about the culture," Stratton said.

The Human Rights Education Institute, of Coeur d'Alene, co-sponsored the event to help raise awareness about different cultures. It was Lakes Magnet Middle School's first Multicultural Faire, and organizers of the event plan to make it an annual event.